Anyone have a good recipe for dal?

[ToLiveToLaugh]

I really like indian food. And it's low meat, so it can be healthy but on a college student's budget .

Does anyone have a good recipe that you've tried before for dal or any other common indian dishes? I also LOVE thai food, if you have any good thai recipes.

Thank you!

 

[savingdogs]

Thai food can be easy if you have a local asian market. Alot of their basic flavorings come in cans or bottles you need to have on hand to make the dishes, such as fish sause. What thai recipes are you interested in, we know a few we learned from a thai restaurant owner. Panang is my husband's specialty dish.

What did you want to make? Phad Thai noodle kits come in the market in a variety of ways now, you can dress that up adding fresh ingredients from the regular market (bean sprouts, peanuts, shredded carrot, fresh cilantro) that you like on it. It is actually just a noodle salad.

Another easy one is to make fried rice with rice-a-roni, but open a can of chopped pineapple. Mix canned crab meat with some "hot" pork sausage and make into patties and then fry this until done to serve with the rice.

This is NOT how our Thai friend cooked, but how us Americans adapted it to be easy for us to do quick!

I can get my hubby to write down his Panang recipe if you like the hot spicy curry recipes. Now that one we got from our Thai friend, but I'll have to ask my hubby for the list of stuff we had to get at an asian market, it was rather long.

I can't help you with the indian food but I'd love to hear everyone's recipes, especially if they don't mean you have to find 51 ingredients from specialty stores! I'm all for authentic but like to just go to one market.

 

[ToLiveToLaugh]

Luckily we have an asian market and an indian market in town, so I can get the supplies I need. Just straight lentils I'm not so much a fan of. I've finally gotten used to straight beans. Thank goodness for dry beans and rice!

As for thai food, I love any involving peanut sauce! I'm addicted. Soooo good. I don't eat a lot of meat in dishes because a- its spendy and b- when it isn't, I feel morally guilty. When I get salmon and venison from home its gone in a hot second, but most of the time I'm pretty meatless. The SO loves curries so any recipes would be greatly appreciated! No such thing as too spicy with this one! (I like it pretty hot too, but I'm not a raw pepper eater like him).

The Panang recipe would be great, but my understanding is its a beef dish? It would be nice to have for my bi-weekly meat night though! Yum beef!

 

[savingdogs]

Well he's sleeping right now but I'll get his recipe in the morning. It is mainly a sauce and you could put in it anything you want. You buy that Jasmine rice to serve with it. And it is spicy, hot curry. I think you would like it.

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Try these Thai Spicy Rice Balls; they are delicious, cheap & very filling. I love them:

http://thaicookingwithjam.blogspot.com/

This site is good if you have easy access to the right ingredients (as you do). A little fish or meat goes a long way. Poke around in the links & you will find other really wonderful recipes. The photos will help you recognise some of the odder ingredients you will see in the markets.

****edited to add this site for more ideas: http://www.enjoythaifood.com/how-to-cook-thai-food/how-to-cook-pork-soup.html

Good luck !

Hattie

 

[Hattie the Hen]

Now as for Indian food, dal can be very diverse according to your families traditions and what area you come from. So have a look at some of the ones on this site, there are so many here:

http://simpleindianfood.blogspot.com/search/label/Dal varieties

http://simpleindianfood.blogspot.com/2007/09/masoor-dal.html



I love poking around & exploring the food information on this blog. I hope you will too!

You might find this list very useful as it explains ingredients & terms used in Indian cookery:

http://indianfood.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/Glossary_of_cooking_terms_and_ingredients.htm

Hattie

 

[sylvie]

No Dal recipes, just throwing these out for economy's sake:

I make lentils into a stew, which reminds me of beef stew.
It is basic with carrots, potatoes, green beans, onions, lentils, salt & pepper. Slow cook and it makes its own gravy.

I love yellow split peas and make split pea fritters that I posted here on post #79:
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1038&p=8

 

[hwillm1977]

Here's a cheap noodle dish that I ate ALL the time as a college student:

1 pack Ramen (Mr. Noodles type) noodles
1/2 onion chopped
4 ounces meat of choice, cooked and cut into bite size pieces
Coleslaw veggies (I used broccoli slaw) to taste, stir fry veggies... whatever you have

Mix together some soy sauce, a little rice vinegar, chili pepper flakes, a little fresh ginger shredded, and a garlic clove minced.

cook noodles while you saute onion and veggies in a little oil in a wok.

Drain noodles and turn your wok to really hot, make a well in the middle of your veggies, dump in seasonings, and noodles... there should be enough soy sauce to coat noodles to a light brown colour (you can add more if you need to). Add meat at the same time and stirfry until heated through. If you have seasame oil, put a few drops in before you eat... you can also add crushed peanuts since you like those... it's really open to interpretation.

I always just used whatever meat was on sale that week... and basically whatever veggies I had on hand... it was always my go-to 'can't afford asian take-out' meal It turns out very similar to Lo Mein.

Edited to add: That makes one serving for me

 

[ORChick]

As Hattie pointed out there are many dhal recipes; probably every Indian cook has her own . This is what I make; very easy and relatively quick.

1 cup red lentils, rinsed
1 1/2 Tbls. oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala (lacking this a good quality curry powder would probably also be fine)

Fry onion in hot oil till soft, adding ginger and garlic towards the end (to avoid burning). Add turmeric and lentils. Fry for a couple of minutes, stirring. Add 2-3 cups hot water, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer. Cover, and cook about 20 minutes. Add garam masala (and a pinch of salt if needed) Continue cooking till it is the consistancy of porridge (I just start this before anything else, and let it simmer on very low till the rest of the meal is ready, but it really doesn't need that long.) Add hot water as needed; conversely, remover cover to evaporate extra liquid. Garnish with sliced onion, sauteed till golden brown. Or chopped cilantro, or other herb. Or heat some oil in a small pan, and fry some cumin seed, or mustard seed, till the seeds start to pop, and pour them over the top of the dhal when serving.

ETA: The other day we were in an Indian restaurant. Their dhal was more of a soup than a porridge, and had chopped spinach it it. I've never added that to the above recipe, but I bet it would be a nice addition. I wouldn't chop it terribly small, and would add it towards the end.

 

[sufficientforme]

I have never tried these but they look promising with good ratings

http://www.recipezaar.com/Dal-As-we-like-it-89509
http://www.recipezaar.com/Channa-Dal-Curried-Chickpeas-306863
http://www.recipezaar.com/Simple-Lentil-Dal-Dahl-310940
http://www.recipezaar.com/Spicy-Red-Lentil-Dal-With-Pita-Wedges-301822